Medical Emergency Triggers Stampede At San Francisco Theater

Chaos broke out during a performance of the musical “Hamilton” at San Francisco’s Orpheum theater Friday night after audience members mistook a medical emergency for a shooting.

A woman had a heart attack and someone broke open an emergency defibrillator, activating an alarm at the same time that gunfire went off on stage as part of the show’s duel scene, city fire department spokesman Jonathan Baxter said.

The scene depicts the deadly duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

“We all ducked and ran out of the theater, one person was yelling ‘gun,'” tweeted Shirin Rajaee, a reporter for CBS Sacramento who was in the audience.